More from Steve Solloway of the Press Herald:

Marriage of convenience breaks apart 

By Steve Solloway

Friday, September 22, 2006

Curtis Key woke up Wednesday morning knowing he had a race driver. Sometime that afternoon he was on the phone, trying to find a replacement for the one who had just walked out the door.
After 11 races with a struggling Craftsman Truck Series team, Ryan Moore had enough. He walked away from Key Motorsports and this weekend's race in Las Vegas even as the hauler carrying the race truck and equipment was on the interstate heading west.
"He quit on us and left us high and dry at the worst possible moment," said Key. "But we're moving on. We're heading to Vegas with the team and a new driver. We're going to work as hard as we can while that boy is going to be at the beach, stylin' and profilin'."
Ouch. Divorces can be so bitter. File this one under irreconcilable differences. Then lay blame at the doorstep of NASCAR.
Someday, the people who run this major sport will realize what its doing to its young.
Or to put it another way, what it isn't doing.
"It's a free-for-all out there," said Moore. "You're always fighting."
Fighting to get noticed, fighting to get ahead. Fighting to get with any team, hoping not to be made the scapegoat and thrown away before your 24th birthday. Hoping that some team owner will understand that mistakes are part of the learning process.
In the big picture, the Key-Moore breakup is a digital moment. A successful, middle-aged businessman from Virginia trying to realize his passion and a 23-year-old racer from Scarborough trying to realize his dream.
"I found out we were in the sport for different reasons," said Moore. "I wanted to move ahead by leaps and bounds. But it seemed like I was on the outside looking in. Curtis was happy if people knew his name as the team owner.
Key's take? "We're probably not a big enough team for that boy. You'd think he'd want to see this out, get the seat time and get some experience. But that's the problem with kids in the sport today.
"Give me a veteran driver. They understand hard work. There's too many kids who don't."
Let's go to the apples and oranges bin. If NASCAR were Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NHL or even the NBA, it would have a system by which to develop young talent. Call it the minor leagues or the NCAA.
The big teams in Nextel Cup, those owned by Joe Gibbs and Jack Roush and the like, now have development programs. They are too few and can take too few drivers. Moore was part of the Dale Earnhardt Inc., program for a brief time. No one can or will say why that didn't work.
The Craftsman Truck and Busch Series do not develop Nextel Cup drivers. With an exception here or there, there's no support.
Key Motorsports has no sponsor and few resources. Moore says he tried but couldn't make the team do better than an occasional 15th place. Finishing 30th or worse was more likely. Contrary to what Moore said last weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway, communication had all but stopped. "I could talk, but they weren't listening to me.
"I had to look out for myself."
If he wasn't the solution, he didn't want others to think he was the problem.
Moore won't say what was said Wednesday that led to his abrupt decision to quit, only that it was clear to him he had no future with Key Motorsports. At NHIS, he dropped no hints.
"Things happen for a reason," he said Thursday. "I'll be racing again."
Tim Fedewa takes Moore's place. Key ticked off the names of about a dozen drivers who started calling soon after Moore walked out the door. "Veteran drivers. Derrike Cope was sitting in my office (later that afternoon) asking about the ride. I'll take what's dealt to me."
Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or at:
ssolloway@pressherald.com